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OCEANERS in Borderless Europe!

OCEANS NETWORK | On the 25th – 26th October 2013 members of OCEANS Network participated in the conference „Prospects for the European Union: Borderless Europe?“ The conference was held in the capital of Hungary, Budapest, organized by the Institute for Cultural Relations Policy and hosted by Kodolányi János University of Applied Sciences.

During the conference, the EU Regional Coordinator of OCEANS Network, Ms. Martina Maczalová presented the OCEANS Network, its goals, activities and involvement to the audience of the conference. One of the OCEANS Network’s members, Ms. Renata Ribezl, attended the conference as a guest speaker, with her article “The indigenous multiculturalism in the EU: Current situation and challenges for the future”.

On the first day of the conference we could insight into the political and law issues, enlargement question, monetary crisis, borderless cooperation, or relations among member states of the EU. Think of all great speakers let’s mention most impressive lectures by H.E. Mr. Gordan Grlić Radman, Ambassador of Croatia to Hungary, Mr. György Schöpflin, Member of the Europen Parliament, Mr. Péter Balázs, former Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs or Mr. John Wrieden, Florida International University.

The second day of conference was enriched by presenting results of many interesting researches, mostly on the regional scale, e.g. national vs. european identity or immigrants and integration processes in the EU.

We asked our members, who had the pleasure to participate the conference, about their impressions:

I was glad to attend this event, as existing borders and various constraints for countries in European Continent are a relevant topic for discussion. Conference consisted of presentations, touching number of interesting fields such as cultural studies, sociology, geography, political science, law, history and economics. Speakers presented their papers where they carried a research in European Union countries and in a wider region. During the conference I learnt many new things about Economic perspectives of European Union as a global power, legal and social challenges and what to expect beyond the European Union. Besides the conference I spent amazing time with Oceans Network Members and discovered a wonderful city Budapest.

Evelina S., Lithuania

From participating in conference in Budapest for two days, I could hear various topics and issues about European Union and prospect. Many speakers gave valuable ideas and some of them were really interesting such as human trafficking, indigenous multiculturalism because I never had a chance to discuss deeply these topics related to European before! About borderless Europe seems difficult or even it does not seem right way for the European Union to go in the future at this moment having economic crisis and social conflicts. However, I saw the positive future of European Union through this conference dealing with problems and trying to find better solution. I really thank OCEANS Network for inviting me on this conference and giving a chance to meet nice people and great speakers!

Yoonmi K., South Korea

This conference was the second one I attended through the OCEANS Network and I must say that the network has a tendency to pick conferences with very devoted and motivated organizing teams. The staff of the conference was very helpful and well organized. Thanks to the OCEANS Network and the organizers I was able to present my article at this conference. As a PhD student it is very important to me to have this opportunities and I thank to both of parties that made this possible.

Renata R., Slovenia

We are happy that we could participate in this pleasant and interesting venue where we could know better the EU and find our part in contribution of building its future.

We also believe that conference „Prospects for the European Union: Borderless Europe?“ is beginning of very successful and frutiful cooperation between the OCEANS Network and the Institute for Cultural Relations Policy.